Days and months passed more quickly with Estel - soon it was as if he had always been in Imladris, so seamlessly was he incorporated into daily life. For Gilraen, watching her son grow up in such a sanctuary as Rivendell was a relief much needed during her mourning for Arathorn; for Elrond, having the peals of childish laughter to interrupt his work was pleasant enough distraction from his own grief and the loneliness that had plagued him ever since Celebrian had sailed away, all the more so when Arwen had left to Lorien. Elladan and Elrohir took to the child predictably well, finding in him a little brother that the Evenstar, though sterner than her looks provided, had never made.
"No, you must not flail like that," Elrohir chided patiently, one hand easily holding up Estel in the water as the boy - now five years old, dark hair elven-long and braided as such - tried to float. The sun was already high overhead, gleaming gold-bright over the Bruinen's trickling waters and warming the ground beside, where Elladan sat, nimble fingers fletching arrows while he watched the other two. All were still fully clothed, despite two being in the water - Estel, in his excitement, had slipped on the rockier bank as soon as they'd gotten to the ford and fallen into the water. Elrohir had dived in after him to fish the boy out before he drowned.
Naturally, it had turned into a swimming lesson.
"If I don't move, how can I swi-- blrbbblb!" Estel sputtered, dipping back underwater, and Elrohir quickly set a supporting hand beneath Estel again, propping his head up above the surface.
"You must learn to float before you swim, Estel, unless you plan to swim as well as a rock. No - don't hold your breath. Breathe. Relax."
"I am!"
Elladan chuckled from the shore, setting down another arrow to the growing pile at his side. "I've seen dwarven axes less stiff than you, little brother," he called.
"Do not fight the water," Elrohir encouraged, gently bobbing the boy up and down in the water. "It will accept you if you let it. Relax."
Estel muttered something that Elladan could not hear over the sounds of the ford, though Elrohir laughed. And Elladan watched, tolerantly amused and approving, as the boy floated out of Elrohir's grasp. "Look! Elladan, Elrohir! I'm floating! I'm--"
Elrohir sloshed forward through the water to pull Estel upright again, shaking his head with a grin as the child spat water. "Estel, orc-brain - give it a rest for awhile. Come, let's eat and dry off. We'll try again later. Brother, you have not yet eaten all our lunch, have you?" he called over to Elladan as he stepped out of the water, Estel held firmly under one arm.
"Not yet, but if you two leave me alone with these arrows and the food much longer, I might."
"Suppose we give you some company, then." And Elrohir sat down, depositing Estel on the ground between him and his brother. Elladan set aside his fletching materials and grabbed instead the hamper containing the food they had brought, while Elrohir wrung out his wet hair; Estel, watching, imitated the movement, though the water he brought forth simply dripped onto his already-soaked clothes. Plates of food were passed around, and the trio ate. Estel, between bites of food, rambled cheerfully on about everything that had happened to him in the last week that neither Elladan nor Elrohir had been witness to - that was to say, not much.
"And Erestor is so boring! He was reading aloud yesterday again - the Return of something --"
"The Noldor," Elladan supplied.
"The Return of the Noldor, yes, and I nearly fell asleep! He just goes on, and on, and on," Estel's voice briefly dropped to a bland monotone, though his eyes still sparkled with humor, "like he's never been happy about anything before!"
"Insolent little elfling," Elrohir chuckled, tugging lightly on one of Estel's haphazard braids. "Perhaps you should be taught to read for yourself, then."
"You'll teach me to read? Really?"
"Not we!" A grin spread across Elladan's face. "If 'twere up to us to teach you, you'd never learn. Ada might teach you, or Glorfindel, or even Erestor."
"Ai, not Erestor! Why can you not teach me?"
"Little brother, we ride out to hunt Orcs too often, now that winter approaches. You would learn too little from us while we are home in Imladris."
"Yrch!" Estel's eyes lit up. "Can I come with you?"
"When you're but a little bigger," Elladan and Elrohir chorused - it was the standard answer to more than half of the boundless questions Estel asked, and always resulted in the same impatient sigh and faintly sullen look from the boy. "Don't pout so," Elladan said gently. "You will come with us one day when you are ready."
"And 'til then, we will regale you with our stories of such hunts when we return," Elrohir added, leaning back on the sun-warmed ground.
"All right," Estel finally conceded, stretching out on the ground as well, always ready to do as Elrohir did. "Can we sleep now?"
"Just for a little while," Elladan replied, settling to stretch out with Elrohir's leg as his pillow. "Later, we'll teach you how to swim instead of just float."